The Templars of Twilight
The Templars of Twilight were a faction of force users that believed that the force was not split into a light and dark side, but that it wished to be used as a whole and that the Jedi and Sith inbalanced it by using only part of it. Unlike the Jedi, who were mostly a monastic order, The Templars of Twilight were a dual order. They devoted themselves to similar tenets as a monastic, but also had a military side to them, having their own self sustaining military factions. Background The Templars of Twilight believed in a secondary energy next to the Force that they called The Balance. The Balance was the energy that resulted by harmony between order and chaos. It was, in the Templars belief, the driving energy behind the force and the galaxy as a whole. For without balance between chaos and order, the galaxy would fall apart, for growth would either become too numerous, or be stifled to the point of decadence. The Templars were both a monastic and a militaristic order, believing that to maintain balance they both needed to spend just as many hours meditating as cleansing the galaxy of imbalance. A Jedi might want to resolve a situation in a peaceful manner, whereas Templars were more pragmatic. If it was easier to just kill someone, then they would do it rather than expend the extra energy trying to find a potentially nonexistent peaceful resolution. They would also not go a route just because it was easiest. They would always choose whichever route they viewed as neccesary rather than which route was easier, or which route was "right" or "wrong." History Before the Twilight During the years after the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, there was unrest within the Jedi. Foolishly believing the Sith to be extinct they began to become complacent in their duty, which frustrated and disillusioned some of the more dedicated Jedi who were smart enough to realize that the Sith had only suffered a setback at Ruusan and would eventually come back even stronger than before. It might be a year after the battle, or even a hundred years but it would eventually happen. Time would prove them right, but the Jedi refused to hear them at the moment. During this time of unrest, a very young light within the force was taken from the planet Alderaan to the Jedi Temple upon Coruscant. Marcus Nagdir Dade was the child's name and his midichlorian count was off the charts. Having a count of over 19,000 - the highest in many years - he was immediately touted by some to be the answer to the ancient prophecy of the Whills. The Jedi council, however, knew this to be untrue as the young child had a documented and biological father. The child was trained to Knighthood and eventually reached the rank of Master, becoming quite famous for his power in the force. His arrogance matched his talent, as he called himself a genius in the force. While many people didn't debate this fact, it still caused unrest in the Jedi, who preached against pride and boastfulness. The young master fell in love and, against the laws of the Jedi, got married. Being found out he was given a choice of leaving or giving up his wife. Wanting to rather live a life of exile than leave the love of his life, he voluntarily gave up his lightsaber to the council and resigned his commission as Jedi Master to become one of the famed Lost Twenty. The Jedi carried on as usual, continuing their long and slow downward spiral that would eventually culminate in their near extinction centuries later. Fast forward nearly seven centuries. In 134 BBY, six Jedi had reached the breaking point with the Jedi and had become disillusioned to the point that they demanded an audience with the council to voice their concerns. These Jedi were comprised of three masters, one knight and two padawans. The three masters were Leor Danal, Jonah Kass, and Arlac Thene. Derak Ja'huni, the Jedi knight, was technically old enough to be considered as a candidate for the title of master but because of his brash attitude had been deliberately skipped by the Jedi council on such a matter. The first padawan, Arla Kress, was Master Denal's padawan and just as free thinking as he was, which annoyed Master Yoda, who was the same race as he was, but far wiser (at least in the council's opinion). The second padawan, Tera Byssta, had lost her master, Yuu Katai, to what she believed was Jedi incompetency and thus she was emotionally positioned against the Jedi. Unfortunately despite the group's efforts to be civil and present a valid argument, they were belittled by the council and called impatient and accused of not following the tenets of the Jedi. This angered the more free thinking and rash ones in the group, Leor, Derak and Tera. Derak went as far to call the council a bunch of "ignorant windbags who wouldn't know sense or true honor if it bit them in the ass and then danced naked in front of them." Ja'huni's remark was the spark that the group needed to light a fire and soon the group's frustration and anger at the council exploded full force in which they began not only counting off the idiocies of the present Jedi, but the horrible acts they were responsible for in their past, such as trying to bury the matter of Ruusan and committing genocide upon Korriban millennia earlier. The Jedi Council, despite Master Yoda's attempts to calm them, refused to take such acts of defiance and banished the six Jedi, stripping them of their weapons and their ranks. The group, however, refused to give up their weapons. The council threatened attack, and the group said that the council would have to be the one to draw first blood. At this point, Yoda forced intervention and threw two of the council members who had threatened violence against the wall with the force. He then said that he supported the council's decision and that if the group wished to leave the temple with their weapons and without violence, that they should do so then. And so they did. At that moment they stopped recognizing themselves as Jedi. They had served the order dedicatedly for years, especially Leor Danal and Arlac Thene and now they felt that the order had abandoned them in favor of idiocy, pride and close mindedness. Founding The group of six had no idea of what to do now that they were officially not just people in robes with lightsabers instead of Jedi. It was Jonah Kass who first suggested contacting another wanderer who, according to legend, shared their view that they had developed upon the force. This figure was the same master who had resigned his commission so many centuries earlier: the mysterious and supposedly dead Marcus Dade. Finding Sekot Landing upon the planet, they at first doubted Dade's words about the planet being a sentient being. This was until the planet reached out and spoke to all them, saying that it knew they would be coming for quite some time. Refusing to devulge what it meant, the planet, calling itself Sekot, offered a large mountainous structure as the new headquarters of their fledgling order. The mountain, known as Dragon Head mountain, was actually not a mountain at all, but a gigantic natural phenomenon that look like an underground city. If Sekot was to be believed, it had been expecting for quite sometime, millenia probably and had built a giant underground complex specifically for them. Undecided about whether they believed that the mountain had been intended for them since its construction, they accepted it none the less. With Sekot's help they soon turned it from a series of underground caverns into a beautiful temple, complete with natural windows and various rooms that would eventually become the present Temple Areas. Telling the seven errant Jedi that it was easier to speak with Sekot the closer you were to the core, it informed them that it would help them build a natural elevator that would lower them from the atrium to a large hollowed out cavern that Sekot had deemed its chambers. Speaking within their minds, the sentient planet, explained to them about how to plant and grow vines so that they would entine themselves around any object they places near them. It then explained that most plants upon the planet were at least semi-sentient, and the Vines could be "trained" to obey any order they gave them, in effect lowering and raising a platform or a person. When the elevator was complete, it was a system of vines that would entwine themselves around up to five people and gently lower them the hundreds of meters below the temple to the chambers. The seven errant Jedi officially founded their order a year later, and decided to call themselves the Order of Balance. A Time of Quiet The First battle of Zonama Sekot The Clone Wars The Dark Times The Galactic Civil War The Calm before the Storm The Vong Invasion The Battle of Coruscant A return to hiding The Force Cold War The Sith Imperial War The Twilight Jedi The Third Galactic Civil War Military Power The Templars, maintained a Military force for their uses. In total, the Force was about as small as a large militia, but was divided between their major colonies. In total three quarters of the Templars resources were spent on defenses. Of that fifty percent of it is devoted to planetary defenses, the rest is divided among the three subgroups, the Navy taking the most because of the expense of ships. Navy Army Marine Corp Scientific Studies The Templars of Twilight, were more than just protectors of the Balance, they were also scientists. Keeping to this they established many scientific studies of various kinds. Biological Ecological The Templars were very curious about nature in and of itself and how it related to the Force. They sent observers to various environments and worlds to study Ecology and its interactions with the force. A Prime Example of this was the Anothelis Aquatic Research Base and a research sub located in one of Gehenna's under ice seas. Astrological The Force Influential Members Category:Templar_Info